How To Achieve a Work/Life Balance While Working 70+ Hours per Week

Strong planning habits and attention to logistics help me handle the intense work life that I want to have right now

Image credit: AlSimonov.

Working 72–76 hours per week is not rare, but working that amount of time and feeling balanced is quite rare.

In this article, I want to share with you the six principles I do every day to feel balanced.

This article is not to tell you to work more. It is for people who already have to work 70+ hours or who want to pursue this lifestyle and still find a work-life balance.

Is There an Optimal Schedule?

I know a handful of people across industries who work over 70 hours per week. Some of them suffer from lack of sleep, poor eating habits, constant stress, and no time with family. Some of them even abuse substances to stay awake and work for a couple of days straight.

On the other hand, I have coworkers who have toddlers, still hit the gym twice per week, or are in their 50s and work 80+ hours per week with one main job and 1–2 side jobs. These people are healthy, sober, efficient, generally happy, and have positive vibes.

This left me with the question: is there an optimized schedule that helps us achieve a work-life balance when working 72–76 hours per week?

Defining That Schedule

There are two ultimate questions that I asked myself when defining this system. First, what are the activities I must have? And second, how much time will I be willing to spend on each activity? Well, I like to work, have a clear mind, have a healthy body, be able to meet up with family once a week, and have time for social life.

I treat this as hypothetical testing at first — with working 72–76 hours per week as a base. If I want to work 72–76 hours per week, would I still be able to:

1. Fulfill my personal development?
2. Have good mental health?
3. Have good physical health?
4. Spend time with my family?
5. Have time for my social life?

Here is what I came up with:

• 76 hours of work (45%)
• 52.5 hours of sleep (31.5%)
• 6 hours of exercise (3.5%)
• 33.5 hours of a break for family and social life (20%)

Weekly hours break down by activities. This and remaining images by the author.

I break down all my weekly activities and then categorize them into four groups: work, sleep, break, and exercise. The reasons why I only have these four distinct groups are:

• I cannot multitask them with any other activities
• I cannot replace them with any other activities

For example, I cannot sleep and exercise at the same time, or work and take a break at the same time. I also cannot substitute my eating activities in a break with sleeping as these two activities fulfill different needs. This is my own system, but I believe you may come up with something better.

Making a Schedule Accordingly

Before working from home — 72 hours:

06:30 AM: Wake up, make breakfast, and listen to the news on TV 🌞🥞
07:00 AM: Commute to work🚲🏢
07:30 AM: Start morning shift + Cappucino 💻☕
11:30 AM: Go out for lunch 🌮👩👨
01:00 PM: Start afternoon shift + black tea 💻🍵
04:30 PM: Commute to home 🚲🏡
05:00 PM: Workout 🏋️‍♀️🚿
06:00 PM: Make dinner, watch a movie 🥘📺
07:00 PM: Start evening shift + green tea 💻🍵
11:00 PM: Wrap up and prepare for the next day 👚🦷
11:30 PM: Sleep 😴

Before WFH — 72 hours workweek schedule

After working from home — 76 hours:

07:30 AM: Wake up, make breakfast, and listen to the news on TV 🌞🥞
08:00 AM: Start morning shift + Cappucino 💻☕
12:00 PM: Make lunch, do house chores, read books 🌮🧹📕
01:00 PM: Start afternoon shift + black tea 💻🍵
05:00 PM: Workout 🏋️‍♀️🚿
06:00 PM: Make dinner, watch a movie 🥘📺
07:30 PM: Start evening shift + green tea 💻🍵
11:30 PM: Wrap up and prepare for the next day 👚🦷
12:00 AM: Sleep 😴

I strictly do not work on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. I use this time to dine in or out with family and friends, go grab a couple of drinks, do long readings, and occasionally try new experiences like surfing or wall climbing.

After WFH — 76 hours workweek schedule

What changed after working from home:

(-) one-hour commute 🚫🚲
(-) half-hour lunchtime 🚫👩👨
(+) half-hour to sleep 😴😴
(+) half-hour to read/watch TV 📚📺
(+) half-hour to work 💻

The Principles That Help Me

1. Don’t skip meals and have snacks 🍝

Food is a great source to pump up your energy, and it supplies nutrients for your mind and body. Taking in enough calories and nutrients helps your body and mind function.

Feeling hungry really distracts me from working. Thus, I’m always loaded with food and caffeinated drinks before starting my work shift. I also enjoy snacking on finger foods like crackers and nuts whenever I feel hungry during work hours.

2. Exercise 3–5 hours per week 🏋️‍♀️🥊

Working out helps change your body’s chemicals and makes you feel refreshed after working for a long day. It boosts your metabolism, endurance, and strength, which are necessary to support intense work. Besides that, working out from 3 to 5 hours a week is recommended to have a healthy body and prevent many health problems later on.

Before quarantine, I used to hit the gym in my apartment complex. Now, I just exercise at my home workout station. I work out six days a week and usually go for 30 to 45 minutes with two-thirds of the time on cardio and one-third on muscle strength.

3. Sleep at least seven hours per day 😴🛌

It is recommended that an adult should get anywhere from 7 to 9 hours of sleep per day. A good and long sleep recharges your mind and body after a long day and prepares you to be your best the next day. Appearing at your job sleepy the whole day is not a good feeling and can make you look like a slacker — that is, unprofessional.

Thus, I try to sleep from 12 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. I also sometimes take a 15-minute nap during the afternoon, and occasionally another right after dinner. I believe power naps are quick rechargers. Good sleep is the ultimate way to help you work better and live happier immediately and in the long run.

4. Take a break after four hours of work 🛑

Many studies show that the more consecutive hours of work we do, the less productive we are. But, there is an optimal point where “the number of consecutive work hours” x “your productivity” = valuable outcomes. For me, that optimal point is four hours. In fact, employers are mandated to give employees at least ten minutes of break after working for four hours in many states.

I do not work by the hour, and my tasks are different every day. However, I fit and split whatever I have to do in a day into three four-hour shifts. This helps me become conscious when it’s time to take a break. This one-hour break shifts my focus elsewhere, relaxes my mind, and reboots my energy.

5. Use break-time to socialize 👩👨

Instead of having lunch and dinner alone, go eat with your coworkers, friends, or family. Make the best time of these breaks by catching up or expanding your social circle. If you spend every lunch and dinner eating with someone, you would spend 12.5 hours per week socializing during weekdays, and 12 hours socializing during weekends — minus sleep-time.

Before working from home, I was big on socializing. I would go out to meet a friend or a family member for lunch almost every day. After quarantine, I mostly see my family for dinner on the weekend, but I still schedule video calls with friends during break.

6. Spend time on hobbies 🎣🚵‍♀️♟

Hobbies are personal pleasures and identities. It is true that with a 72– to 76-hour workweek, you would indeed have to sacrifice time for your hobbies. Still, you can find time to be creative and squeeze in your hobbies. For example, if you play sports, you can replace that practice hour with the workout time. You can also make it two hours three times per week, instead of one hour six times a week.

For me, I enjoy reading on Sunday morning and watching one episode of my favorite series for half an hour daily. Remember “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” If you want to be “sharp” at work and life, do make sure to have fun and set aside time for your hobbies.

Trying the Schedule

I have tried this for over half a year where there were months that I came to the office, and there were months that I worked from home. Between the two schedules, I like the working from home one so better. Turns out I enjoy an extra hour to sleep and an extra hour to read or watch TV rather than meeting up with people every day.

This started when I moved back to my hometown after being away for five years. I did not have my circle of friends around, nor my dating life, and my social life was limited because of the pandemic. So, working long hours somewhat helped fill that void. Some of the differences were — I sleep longer (7+ hours instead of 5–6 hours), I work out every day, and no more lunch on the go. Another difference is that I learned how to reconnect and make time for family as I’m back in my hometown now.

The total number of work hours was not a big challenge for me as I was working or studying around 68 hours per week for years. However, the disciplined parts — where I have to get up on time, go to bed on time, and work out daily — were a lot harder. There were days when I did not feel like working out, or I became lazy while working in the evening (not tired just lazy). To get better at this, I watched military educational and motivational videos on discipline. Here is my favorite motivational speech from Admiral McRaven starting with making your bed.

My biggest drive for doing this was that my work is very dynamic. Within 72–76 hours, I don’t only do direct work-related tasks, but also other indirect tasks. These tasks include academic reading, learning new skills, networking, and attending conferences that help with my work and personal development.

Overall, this works out for me. It makes me feel efficient while still giving me time to take care of my health and socialize. It answered yes to all my hypothetical questions of whether I would have time for personal development, family, friends, and good mental and physical health.

However, sometimes this makes me feel more like speeding through life and living on a high. I may consider working no more than 72 hours or reducing my work week to 68 hours per week to have more time for recreational activities like Spanish and piano.

The 72–76 Workweek Is Not for Everyone

I must mention that a huge perk of how I’m able to achieve feeling balanced doing 72–76 hours workweek is the planning and the logistics behind it. I will also have another article on how I plan and optimize my work schedule.

My perks include:

• Living in the city
• Having a built-in gym in my complex
• Having a supermarket in my complex
• Using different services to free up my time
• Not taking care of anybody else (toddlers, elders, ill family members)
• Living 15 minutes away from the office
• Have complete control over my time and work
• Working from home (right now)

I know this is not the case for everyone as people have long commutes, have to run between work, gym, and home, have to take care of their kids or have other commitments.

Working 72 hours while still having time to eat well, sleep well, exercise, socialize, meet family, and relax is balance. However, what I define as balance may not suit you. If I had a family with toddlers, I would definitely cut down my hours to 60 per week to spend more time with my kids.

I hope you enjoy this read. Please drop a comment below if you have a suggestion of anything I should do differently. 😊